Rectifying system



Sept. 10, 1929. J. KUBLER 1,727,834

RECTIFYING SYSTEM Filed April 30, 1921 9mm umu w sacxsrra WILHELMS comp. 1w

7 .tion oi theryariationsfof the permeability Patented Se t I l, 1929.

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RECTIFYING srsrnu.

Application filed April 30,1921, Serial No.

This invention relates to rectifier systems and it has particular relation to apparatus for suppressing harmohic currents from the direct current circuits of said systems.

Among the objects of the invention is the provision of an improved system of the foregoing character providing'for the compensaof the magnetic core meansutilizedin the 'reactors or impedan cesconde cted" in said'direct V current circuits monics. A

for; suppressing the har- T he'zobjec j ofthe. invention ,will'be best understood from. the "following description of exemplifications thereof. Inth'e 'accompanyingdrawings," of f F iggl is circuit diagiE-am of a conventional rectifiersystem of'thegiprior arty;

Fig. 2 is a diagram of the directcurrentvoltage wave across therectifier in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is iii-diagram of the current wave of a rectifier 7 g Fig. 4 is a diagram representing the satur'a tion conditions under various load conditions, and the-relationship of the characteristics of the systemettecting the saturation;

Fig. 5 is a diagram illustratingthe efi'ect of the variations of the saturation on the flow of harmoiiiccurrents ,in the -'direct current system Fig. 6 is a circuit diagrain of a rectifier systeri exemplifying one form ofthe invention an a 1 Fig. 7 is a sectional view of a choke coil constructed in accordance with the invention.

In orderto remove the ripples or'higher harmonics from currents derived from rectifiers it has been proposed to insert-a'reactor or choke .coil in thedirec't current circuit of such rectifiers so as to provide a large impedance -to the flow of such harmonic currents while leavingthe direct: current 'flo'w substantially unhbstructed, Such system is shown inFigure 1 wherein a mercury-vapor rectifier G is arranged to be supplied bya polyphase transformer T from a three-phase line N Thesecondary windings S of the transformer are connected to the ,three anodes A A A of the rectifier. A direct current "load, represented by a nesistorr, is connected between tion characteristics of such materials.

465,944; and a Switzerland 'ka 15, 1920.

the cathodeKj of the rectifier and the neutral point of the star-connected secondary W1Ildings S. Included inqseries with the direct .current load-is a reactor or choke coil L to impede the flow of ripples or-harmonic currents incident tothe three-phase rectification while permittingsubstantially free flow of the direct currentinto'the said load resistor 1'.

' In orderto secure the desired high inductivity' necessaryfor effectively impeding the flow of harmonic currents, the choke coil or inductance means L must have a core of iron,

or, in general, of a magnetic material'of high permeability. .'The core materials of high permeability-introduce, however, 'acomplication in the operation of, 'such -choke coil'or impedance means on account of the variation of the permeability with the degree of induction'of the core, or in other words, the satura- As a 7 result, .the .action of such choking coils in impeding the flow of the'harmonic currents depends to an extraordinary degree upon the magnitude of the load,'since the direct, current upon which the harmonic currents art- :7 impressed varies the. saturation of the cores and, as a result, changes the inductivity of the choke coil means.- Thus, when the load is large and the direct current traversing the choke coil windings is great, a high degree of.

saturation obtains in thecore, diminishing the effectiveness of the choking action owing to the smaller variations in the flux that will be induced by the pulsating-current component. This will be readily nnderstood by a consideratioh of the curves in Flgg$ 2 to 5.- a if In Figure 2 the curve E represents the rectified voltage wave across the terminals of a. rectifier, such as shown in.Figure 1'. The resulting voltage E' consists of a direct-current component E, indicated by a horizontal dotted line, and aha'rmonic component E 1 also indicated by a dotted line.- .Assuming that such rectifier is connected to a purely ohmic load, the direct current derived from' the rectifier will have the form shown in Figure 3' and comprise a direct-current'component I and a harmonic alternating-current component I By comparing the ratio'of the harmonic component It, to the.direct-cur'- rent-component I under various conditions,

L it isreadily possible to determine the effectiveness of particular choke coil or inductance means in suppressing the flow of harmonics.

I shall hereinafter designate this ratio of the harmonic component to the 'direct' current 'coil of the prior art, such analysis being carried out by amethod of approximationssufficient for an understanding of thfi defects of the prior'art choke coils andthe principles underlying my present invention:

Gil.

In Figures there IS show LaQtypical saturation curve of'an ordinaryiehoke coil, .the induction B of the core being plotted against the direct current excitation I L Assuming, for vthe present, that the magnitude of the harmonic current component I is directly proportional to the magnitude of the direct v duction curve at r, s, t u, and lengths equal to v current I the de endence of'the harmonic current L, on the-dlrect current I; may be re'p- \iesented by a straight line'I through the i rigin o of the 'systern of co-ordinates,

y drawing ordinates at the points a, b, c, d, of the abscissae axis, we may directlyoompare the relative effect of the choke coil in opposing the flow of the harmonic currents; The degree of saturation given -by the intersection of each of the ordinates with the induction curve at 1, s, t, u, directly determines the effectiveness of the choke coil in. suppressing v the harmonic current, the magnitude of which is given by the intersection of the ordinate with the harmonic current curve I,,,.

section points of the ordinates with the inthc corresponding value of the harmonic cur rent I -bela'id off in the positive and negative directions on said-horizontal lines, these lengthswi-ll represent the exciting ampere turns of the harmonic currents under different load. conditions corresponding to the abscissae.point a,b,, c, d,

-Thefield ari tioniproduced harmonic current excitation constitutes awmeas-yo ure for the electromotive force of the self! induction Ex which the-choking coil exercises in opposing the harmonic voltage component E which tends'to produce the flow'of the harmonic current I -By drawing vertical lines at the ends'of the horizontal line segments laid ofiat each of the intersection points r, s, etc., and bringing said vertical lines to intersectionwith the induction curve, the voltage variations E produced by the of the field variation, induced by the harnonic currents, which'ma'y be expressed by the electromotive force of the self-induction E will be found to begin at zero, increasing at first with increasing direct current I and. then diminishing again for higher values of saturation. Accordingly, the I influence of the choke. coil will be at a maximum at-some intermediate value of the direct current I,';. This isclearly brought out by the curve 2E, of Figure 4. illustrating the ma nitude of the-electromotive force. induce by the harmonic current pulsation for different the choke coil. a In the foregoingconsiderations it was assumed that.-the'harmonic'current. I is depjendent on the harmonic voltage component values of the direct current flowing through we only. However, as a-matter of fact, theharmonic current flowis generated by the resultant voltage (E -Em) so that the har-.

'monic curve 1 must'be corrected in order to approximate the-true conditions. This may be done by diminishingthe ordinates of the straight line L cur'vein' the proportion of The corrected curt e for the harmonic current 1,, isshown in Figure '4 b a dotted line.

' This corrected value'of the iarmonic current I is, 'of course, still an approximation only'but it suifices for the explanation of the subject matter of the invention.

Taking, now into consideration the corrected value of the harmonic current L, we may now express'the correct value of the harmonic factorzas n ns w u E10 In" -5 Ioh tlh r If horizontal lines'be drawn at the inter n lgule curve 8 ows 1e armomc ac 'monic chokingnieans are'so arraiiged as to securefa substantially uniform low harmonic -factor fora large portion of theload range and to'obtain substantially uniform and relatively high suppression of such harmonic currents throughout the major portions of the load range. Tothis end, the choke coil means are so designed that the voltage characteristics-thereoi are such as to have more than one knee bend as compared to' a single knee bend of the prior art arran ements.

In accordance with e invention this may circuit a second'choke coil which becomes saturated at higher values of the direct current I than the first choke coil means L An arrangement of such character not only securesthe'same harmonic factor for. a larger load range but also serves to further diminish such harmonic factor, or in other words, it

- reduces the proportion oi the harmonic current-swith respect to the direct current flow ingto the load; "Such arrangement is'illustrated diagrammatically in Figure 6 wherein thezdii'ect current circuit supplied from the ,sjult in an effect equivalent to that obtained by the arrangement described above, namely,

rectifier includes, in addition to the load-device N two choke coils L,,-L connected in series with 'th load; The rectifier shown in i this instance is of the six-phase type and comprises six anodes, A, to A connected to the end points of a six-phase star secondary windings of a transformer T, the primary winding P'of which is vconnected in delta to the supply line Np.

In accordance with the invention the two choke coils L L are so designed'that while one choke coil L becomes saturated atrelatively small load currents, the secondchoke coil L f'will become saturated cm at greater loads. In Figure 5 curve I may e regarded as representing the dependence of the hill.

monic factor obtained with choke coil L,,' a while curve II represents the harmonic fac-' .tor curve for the choke coil L Thecombined effect of'the two choke coils L and L as represented by curves I and II, gives the resultantharmonic factor curveIII. This resultant curve III has much smaller ordinates than the component curves I and II and, moreover, has a substantially constant "alue within the major portion of the load range that comesinto practical considera- 'tion.

In the practical construction'of choke coils designed to embody the principles of the foregoing invention, the two choke coil effects may be obtained by a single unit arranged to give the effect of a double knee.

bend in the saturation or induction curve.

The first knee bend of the saturation curve ofsuch combined choke coil will then corre spond to the commencement of the saturation condition in thefirst of the aforesaid choke coils L whereas the second knee bend will correspond to the commencement of the sat-f uration condition in'the second choke coil L Such construction is illustrated in Figure 7 The choke coil has windings-Z mounted on a magnetic core M having two sets of parallel core legs K,,'K interlinked'witli thewindings -Z. The core legs K and K differ from each other in that one is continuous and presents a smaller reluctance-to the magneticflux while the other, K is'subdivided by air gaps to'increase its magnetic reluctance. Be-

cause of the greater conductance .of the continuous corelegs K, they become saturated sooner than the core legs K thus giving the characteristic eifect of two knee bends in the induction curve. Such choke coil is thus the equivalent of two series-connectedchoke coils having differentdegrees of saturation. h

. The invention is not limited to the precise and described hereinabove. Instead of the choke, coil arrangement described above, other arrangements and combinations of the inductive elements for impeding the har; monic current flow may be provided that reof the variations of the permeability of the magnetic core material associated with the inductive means usedin rectifier systems for suppressing the flow of harmonic .currents into thedirect current load. It is accordingly desired that the appended claims be given a broad construction commensurate with the scope of the invention within the rt. i

'- What I-claim is;

' '1. An apparatus for suppressing the harmonies in the direct current circuit of a rectifier' lncluding an lnductive winding inserted in the said direct current circuit, hav-' ing a magnetic core of variable permeability,

the total voltage characteristic of said winding'having more than one knee bend.

detailsof c'onstructionand operation shown 2. An'apparatus as claimed in claim 1, 4

wherein the inductive winding is'constituted by a choking coil.

- 3;. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the inductive winding is constituted by a cho in coil comprising two series connected win ings of which one winding is caused by the-influence of the load current to reach the knee bend ofits'saturation curveearlier than the. other winding.

4.-A1i apparatus as claimed in claim ,1,

wherein-the inductive winding is constituted by a chok n'gcml wound on. twolmagnetically parallel ron cores having different reluctances'. A

' 5. An apparatus ashamed-1a claim 1,

.whereifi the inductive windmg is constituted by' a 'choking'coil wound on two magnetically parallel iron;cores, one of said cores being subdivided bya plurality of air gaps.

=6. The combination of a rectifier, ajdirect currentcircuit connected to said rectifier and subject to. the flow of. harmonic currents, means. for impeding the'flow' of said harmonic currents. comprisin means of variable"-permea ility and windings connected in series with said circuit.

magnetic core gether with meansfor maintaining the potentials of. said harmonic currents substan tially constant within predeterminedlimirrespective .of direct current variations insaid circuit. i t

7; The combination-of a rectifier, a directcurrent circuit connected to said rectifier, and

subject to the flow of harmonic currents, means for impeding the flow of said harmonic V currents comprising magnetic core means of variable permeability and windings con 7 nected in series with said circuit, together with means for maintaining the variations n the flow of'said harmonic currents substantially constant with respect to'variations within predetermined limits in the fi'ow of direct current in said circuit. 8. The combination of a rectifier, a direct- ;cur'rent circuit connected to said rectifier and subject to the flow of harmonic currents, j

' means for impeding the flow of saidharmonic currents comprisin' magnetic core means of variable permea ilit and windings connected in series with said circuit, to-

gethenwith means for varying theimpedance to the flow: of saidharmonic currents in accordance with the variations within predetermined limits in theyflow of direct can said circuit, of means operable to supplement 4 such suppressingaction of said first-namedmeans and havlnga given effective range rent'in said circuit..' a

for impeding the flow of said harmonic'currents in said circuit, said means comprising inductive windings and magnetic core means of variable permeability so associated with said windings as to maintain the potentials of said harmonic currents substantially constant andthe impedance, to the flow of said harmonic currents substantially in accord with the variations within predeter mined limits iir tlreifiow of direct current in said circuit. j; y i

'10; The combination with a rectifying system havin in the,direct-current' output circuit thereo means having a given efiec tive range of operation and being operable to suppress the flow of harmonic currents in of operation beypnd that of the latter.

11. The com ination with a rectifying system havin in the direct-current output circuit thereo means having a givenefiective range ofoperation and being operable to suppress the flow of harmonic currents in said circuit. of means connected in said-circuit and being operable to supplement such suppressing action of said first-named means and having a given efi'ective range of opera tion beyond that of the latter.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this s cification.

J H. KUBLER-WAGNER 9. The combination of a rectifier, a direct current circuit sub ect tothenterposition of. harmonic currents, and impedance means 

